


The World Keeps Turning

by rosecake



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 05:59:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9706208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosecake/pseuds/rosecake
Summary: Luke finally meets the sole survivor of the Rogue One mission.  AU where Bodhi lives.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spookykingdomstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/gifts).



> This was written for Spookykingdomstarlight for Chocolate Box 2017! I hope you enjoy it ♥

It was a beautiful ceremony. Granted, Luke was still riding high on victory and adrenaline, and he probably would have been just as pleased if he'd been handed a gold sticker in a dingy back-room on the base somewhere. He'd just blown up the Empire's strongest weapon, along with quite a few of the Empire's senior staff, and nothing was going to bring him down from that, at least not for a while. 

He ran a thumb over the gold medal, and he knew he must look like an idiot the way he was beaming with pride. Who cared, though? Even Han was beaming. 

A thought occurred to him, and he nudged Leia, who looked just as happy he was. "Hey, what about the pilot who got the plans? He survived, right? Wedge said he made it out. Didn't he get a medal too?" 

He immediately regretted asking the question as Leia's expression twisted into a frown. "Yes, the pilot survived the mission," she said. "He was selected for a medal, and Mon Mothma set up a formal commission for him as well. He wasn't up to all this, though," she said, gesturing to the celebration going on around them. "It was _just_ the pilot that survived." 

Luke exhaled heavily, and realized that the victory itself was really only a part of the reason he was so happy. He pulled Leia into a hug, and she hugged him back. "I'm so glad you're all here with me," he said.

***

Luke told Leia he wanted to meet the surviving Rogue One pilot, and she talked to somebody who talked to somebody else and then all of a sudden he was being introduced to a man with messy hair and large, dark eyes. Luke wasn't great at guessing people's ages, but he figured the guy was a few years older than him.

"Nice to meet you," said Luke, sticking out his hand. 

The pilot, Bodhi Rook, took the offered handshake. "You're the one who blew up the Death Star, right? Wait, sorry, I meant it's nice to meet you too. But that was you, right?" he asked, looking at Luke expectantly. 

"Yes," said Luke. "I mean, it was the whole squadron, but yes I was the one who fired the shot."

"Thank you," said Bodhi. People had been thanking him left and right recently, and as fond as he was of praise, it was beginning to make Luke feel self-conscious. 

"It means a lot to me," said Bodhi, and then he shook his head. "I mean, it means a lot to everybody, _obviously_ , it's just that..." he said, and stopped, and for a second Luke thought Bodhi might start crying in the middle of the hallway. He swallowed it down, though. "I can't even explain how much it means to me," he said. 

"It wouldn't have been possible without you," said Luke. "I know how much you sacrificed to get those plans." He was vague on the exact details of the Rogue One mission, but he knew that much. 

"Yeah," said Bodhi, and at that moment he wasn't so much looking at Luke as looking right through him. 

"Hey," said Luke, putting his hand on Bodhi's shoulder. It worked, and Bodhi's eyes focused back on him. "My squadron needs more pilots, you know. Leia said she didn't think you'd been assigned anyplace else yet." 

"I'm a cargo pilot," said Bodhi quickly. "Not a fighter pilot. I mean, I tried, but..." 

"Don't worry about it," said Luke. "I wasn't a pilot at all until I joined up with the Alliance. They really can't afford to be that picky." 

Bodhi looked unconvinced, and for a moment Luke thought he was going to say no. There was still hesitancy in his voice when he finally said, "Sure." 

"Really?" 

"Yeah," said Bodhi, sounding a little more confident the second time around. "I'd like that." 

He even smiled, and it was sort of a sad and pathetic attempt at a smile, but it was good enough for Luke.

***

Bodhi wasn't the most talkative person in the world, and so when they were together a lot of times Luke ended up doing enough talking for both of them. He told Bodhi about his life on Tatooine, his aunt and his uncle, and about meeting Han and Leia. He left openings for Bodhi to interject with his own history, but Bodhi didn't take them, and so Luke went on with his own stories.

Luke must have gone through every story he had about three times before Bodhi started to open up about his own life, and even then he went slowly. He would mention some kind of food his mother used to cook on Jedha (he grew up on a desert planet, like Luke), or some story he'd heard second-hand from Galen Erso (Luke recognized the name of the Imperial scientist, and his connection to both the Death Star's creation and its destruction), or how flying the X-wing compared to his old Imperial shuttlecraft (Bodhi liked the X-wing better, any pilot would, but he still had some nostalgia for the shuttle). 

And then one night Luke was with him in his bunk and it _all_ came out, as if Bodhi was physically incapable of stopping himself until he'd gotten all the words out. He was so rushed that Luke only caught about half of what he said. 

It was enough, though, for Luke to understand. 

Luke placed a hand on Bodhi's back, trying to calm him as he worked on getting his breathing back to normal. "I'm sorry," he said, mostly because he couldn't think of anything better. 

It wasn't surprising that Bodhi had never talked about any of it before, thought Luke. He had lost a lot since leaving Tatooine, but he'd also gained a lot. But all the people in Bodhi's stories - even the _places_ in Bodhi's stories - they were all gone. So thoroughly annihilated that nothing but the stories were left.

***

The dogfight had started poorly, but in the end Red Squadron had pulled it together. So they come back with some damaged planes, but no damaged pilots, and so as far as Luke was concerned that made it a successful mission.

Bodhi didn't pop out of his X-wing immediately after they got back to base, which was normal. He regularly took his time decompressing in the cockpit after a mission. Luke got tired of waiting after a few minutes, though, and went over and knocked on the canopy. 

Bodhi let the canopy swing up, and the first thing Luke noticed was that he did not look as happy as he should have after a win like that. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. Bodhi hadn't reported an injury, but he might have been waiting until they got back to base. "Come on, where's your overwhelming joy at being alive?" 

"I'm fine," said Bodhi. 

"You don't look fine," said Luke. 

Bodhi sighed heavily, and slumped forward against the control panel. "I am fine," said Bodhi, his head face down against the panel. "I just... I can't do this again, you know?" 

"Do what?" asked Luke. 

"Watch everyone..." said Bodhi, but then he trailed off. 

"Hey," said Luke, putting his hand on Bodhi's shoulder. "Nobody died." 

"Not yet." 

Luke wanted to tell him that he was wrong, and that nobody was going to die, not today and not ever, but it didn't seem right to lie to him. He couldn't think of anything better to say, though, so instead of speaking Luke kissed him on the forehead. Bodhi finally moved his head to look at him, and Luke took advantage and kissed him on the mouth, too. 

"No use worrying about something before it's happened," he said. Maybe not the most reassuring thing in the world to say, but at least it was honest.

Bodhi looked at him for a second, and finally cracked a smile. "Yeah," he said, moving to pull himself out of the X-Wing. "You're right." 

"I am _always_ right," said Luke. "Now, come on. Let's go enjoy life somewhere."


End file.
